We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of requests for social influence marketing proposals, which is a great thing. I, personally, think that social media as a marketing tool affords companies an opportunity to position themselves as brands of choice among their prospects and customers. It can compliment (notice I didn’t say replace) many of the other marketing tactics and channels that organizations are employing quite nicely. Before diving into online conversations, companies need to prepare themselves to listen and participate transparently, and to do that effectively they need a social media monitoring tool.

With a social media monitoring tool, you’ll be able to hear what’s being said about your company, brand, employees, and competition. You’ll be better armed to participate in the conversation and you’ll be able to react to negative publicity before it snowballs out of control and damages your brand. One additional (and very important) feature of a social media monitoring tool is the ability to identify trends and hot topics, allowing you to create content (blog posting, Fan Page update, Tweet) that matches consumer interest.

We’ve explored a number of these monitoring tools and have listed them below (in no particular order) with some images that link to each company’s respective site. These tools all have different features, benefits, and price tags making them a good choice for some companies and not for others. Got a question on how to select a monitoring tool? Give us a shout! Use one of these tools? We’d love hearing your thoughts on what you like or don’t like about it.

Many of you may have seen the Facebook promotion that T.G.I. Friday’s began last year. They created a character named Woody. Become a fan of Woody and when he gets 500,000 fans, every one of them gets a free hamburger. It was a terrific hit and soon Woody had over 900,000 fans, as well as their email address and a heck of a marketing database. I personally thought it was a great idea. Woody traveled across the country visiting restaurants and snapping photos with fans, who posted them on the site. There was video, discussions, and a tremendous opportunity to build community.

That is until Woody’s girlfriend took him back? What?!? That’s it? T.G.I. Friday’s and all their genius decided they should stop the promotion and retire Woody? Okay so maybe the actor playing Woody wasn’t available anymore or it was getting too costly to ship him around the country. I get it. Why not evolve the site? Give Woody a make-over? If your company acts with this type of short-sighted and short-term thinking then you should probably NOT look to social media as a promotional tool.

T.G.I. Friday’s decision to stop the campaign will ultimately do more brand damage than it did positive promotion, and evidence of that is already on display. Many of the “discussions” in the discussion section are negative in nature and rail against the restaurant chain for betrayal. The comments after Woody’s announcement are more negative than positive (click on the image to the right to see for yourself). How is this helping their brand? What started as a great idea – a large community of interested followers – is now a forum for bashing Friday’s. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so drop a comment. I’m no longer a fan of Woody’s so you won’t find me there.

Social media is creating huge opportunity for marketers! Don’t believe me? All you need to do is look at some of the statistics being tossed around. 51% of people use social media and that same number has posted original content somewhere in the social sphere. 73% of people have posted a product review. 97% have searched for a brand online. Facebook alone has over 350 million global users with half of them logging on daily. That’s a market that is hard to resist for many marketers. What’s even scarier is that by the time you finish reading these statistics they’ll be out of date.

Also, according to Razorfish, these social media users are not averse to advertising; 66% of them friended or followed a brand, 65% have had their mind changed about a brand perception, and 97% say that social media has influenced a purchasing decision.

Are you ready to dive in? Great! But ask yourself these 3 questions first… and be sure to answer them honestly:

1. Do you have the ability to monitor your brand? It’s one thing to participate in the massive conversation that is social media, but if you have no mechanism for seeing what’s being said about you, your competition, your products or your employees, then it’s pretty difficult to add any real value to the conversation. Invest in a social media monitoring solution. There are great third party tools out there such as Radian6 or Techrigy (now Alterian), or you can build your own using Google Reader. Don’t know how? Contact me and I’ll show you. Or you can work with a company (like OnFlow) to help you track your brand online.

2. Are you prepared to be transparent in your communications? Social media has created a forum for people to voice their opinions like never before, and if they feel that they’re being sold something that may be too good to be true, they are sure to talk about it. Admit your short-comings and mistakes as quickly as you would your triumphs and successes and you’ll earn people’s trust – the best currency there is in the social sphere.

3. Do you have something of value to share? This question may seem obvious, but just take a look at all the Twitter accounts that provide worthless content. Companies that Tweet their About Us website page in 140 characters over the course of a week are adding nothing of value, and likely creating detrimental brand exposure. Create original content that would be of value to prospects and clients and then expose it to relevant social media channels, while spreading other people’s content as well.

There’s a ton more that you’ll need to consider, but if you answer “NO” to any of the above questions, then it’s not worth discussing as yet. Social media affords huge opportunity, so get your wheels in motion!

Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled mobile phones: We all know that Google and Bing Search began including location based data from a stationary PC’s IP address to further refine local search queries. Although web enabled mobile devices are assigned IP addresses, the IP address does not do much for making local search results more relevant. Enter GPS and GPS-like enabled mobile devices.

Many leading web enabled mobile devices now have GPS embedded search engines and some web sites, and many “Apps”, are leveraging this to make results even more relevant. To take advantage of this trend, ensure that your site is submitted to applicable and credible directories and have an address, and even map with directions, in your site itself. It will make it easier for the search engines to “map” your site and business. Brick and mortar retail stores, restaurants, and local service industry company’s will benefit most from GPS location based mobile searches.

The following video illustrates the capabilities of GPS enabled devices. It might even give you some ideas for your own site or product.

While mobile search has come a long way in a short time, there are still some hurdles that need to be addressed before it becomes the mainstream default standard. Here are 4 that jump out at me immediately:

Browser Variations: The variety of mobile browsers itself is a challenge, as they render web sites differently. The top browsers include Safari, Internet Explorer Mobile, Opera Mobile and Android amongst others.

Interactive Media Streaming: Most mobile browsers today do not support Flash or Silverlight, requiring separate applications or methods for accessing streaming media.

Silverlight for Mobile Site: Silverlight mobile is in development but currently not available. For now, it is best to ensure your core web properties are not heavily Silverlight dependant.

Flash Lite 3: Flash Lite 3 is Adobe’s mobile and internet connected TV solution which has recently been announced, but adoption and availability is low with few working demos on Windows Mobile 6.5 and Opera Mobile 9.5. Adoption is sure to increase but for now, it is safer to make your web pages not heavily Flash dependent.

Flash on iPhone or iPod Touch: Currently Flash content is only available via the YouTube specific app. An iPhone specific Flash implementation made for Safari is in the works, but for now it is best to not be Flash dependent.

Apps: Although web dependant software for mobile phones has been around for years, Apps as we know them today have recently taken off courtesy of the Apple App Store. Apps are increasingly appearing as a way to “browse” specific websites – bypassing the limitations and challenges with the browser. More to come on Apps soon.